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ERP evaluation

The ERP evaluation is a very crucial stage. Please don’t decide on what people say, but decide on what suits your organisation. The team needs to spend time to at least 1-2 months on this ERP evaluation process and various ERPs. It will be worth it.

1. Functional features for your day-to-day transactions and statutory compliance are a must to have (without any customisation – If off-the-shelf product doesn’t have the features, it will take quite a long time for you to get those). Don’t fall pray for the dashboard, color graphs, nice look and feel etc., they are nice to have. Take a deep-level of demo of the system. It is a must to involve all the team members during this stage. Also, take a mock trial for all the use cases to ensure that the solution meets all your transactional and statutory needs. 

2. Price that you can afford. – Don’t fall pray for the ROI stories –  ROI depends on your size of operation. So affordability is extremely important. Price will decide, if you are working for the ERP or the ERP is working for you.

3. Time to implement – Less than 3-4 weeks. Beyond that, people will lose interest. (please see point 1. If the basic features are not available, then this time frame of implementation is not possible). This will be a coordinated effort of both the ERP vendor team and the User team. The ERP blueprint will be very helpful during the ERP evaluation. If the ERP is not industry ready this is not possible. 

4. ERP product – It has to be a Industry ready ERP  system. The product must be at least working in the market for 5-6 years of time. This time is required for the product to get robust. Otherwise, you will become the trial ground. Also, check if the product is working in your segment.

5. Project Manager – Please ensure that you have a project manager (better not a ERP specialist), preferably, a neutral external consultant who will just keep track of all the accepted deliverables and daily milestones done by all stakeholders. A bi-weekly review meeting with the full team is a must to make a course correction to ensure the project is on strict timelines.

Spending quality time with your team, with the ERP vendors at the ERP evaluation stage will save time and money to assure the ERP success for your enterprise.

S. Vijay Venkatesh

Author S. Vijay Venkatesh

The author of this article S, Vijay Venkatesh is the MD and CEO of Syscon Solutions. He has put togethar over 4 decades of Manufacturing Industry & ERP experience. At Syscon he has handled over 150 ERP implementations for various verticals manufacturing industries.

More posts by S. Vijay Venkatesh

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